biography
Isabella Ruano is a Cuban-American artist born and raised in Tampa, FL. Her heroes growing up were her older sister and Ariel from The Little Mermaid. As a child, she would lay her blanket on the floor and imagine the warm sand beneath her as she sang “Part of Your World.” As she got older, she was inspired to pursue theatre after watching her sister portray Gertrude in Seussical the Musical. After that, there were no other activities that filled her soul so much as theatre and singing.
Isabella is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music degrees in Music Theatre and Vocal Performance at Oklahoma City University. She has the privilege of studying voice under Jeffrey Picón and coaches with Jan McDaniel. Her credits include The Ballad of Baby Doe (Baby Doe), La Corona (Meleagro) Die Zauberflöte (Pamina), Suor Angelica (Genovieffa), Pietá (Genovieffa, U.S.A. premiere), and Legally Blonde (Delta Nu/Stenographer). Her concert credits include An Evening With Kelli O’Hara with the OKC Philharmonic (vocalist) and Elijah (Chorus) at the OKC Civic Center. Isabella has also won first place in the Texoma NATS 2021 and 2022 competitions for her voice category and first place in the Mirabell Competition in Salzburg, Austria, where she gave a concert. She was also a semi-finalist for the John Alexander National Competition for Musical Theatre.
Aside from theatre, Isabella is a professional binge watcher and re-watcher of her favorite TV show, Friends, and takes pride in quoting lines from the show. Her go-to movie is How to Train Your Dragon and her go-to books are the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Pivoting from her favorite forms of entertainment, Isabella refines her craft and enjoys practicing her Cuban street salsa skills with her uncle and looks forward to visiting home every year so she can dance with him. She takes every opportunity to dig a little deeper just like Ross does in his own career.
